Luck and Anarchy
by JJ1293
Summary: When some 9-year old kid refused to give up a kunai with Intel attached, three Taki Kunoichi find themselves disinclined to waste time. A' for want of a nail' Fic that runs with the 'Konoha History Arc', set before cannon.
1. Chapter 1

Brief before chapter intro. This fanfic is inspired by, deviates from and starts in, the 'Konoha History Arc' and diverges at the flashback episode 'Iruka's decision' or 178 of part 2. Technically anime-only, but my god, it was great back story on Naruto growing up.

In case it's not blatant, italics are the inner thoughts of the character in focus. I try to keep it on one for each section .If i only use for one word in a sentence, then its probably just to emphasis, to put extra stress on that one word, but not to the point that it warrants **bold.** If I fuck it up or leave italics on, causing the story to become disjointed, please point it out to me so i can address it. I proof read to try and catch these kinds of things, but I'm not perfect or anything. You probably already knew all this, but here it is anyway.

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Luck and Anarchy - Chapter 1 – 'No Time to Waste', or 'Divergence Point'

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"You don't have to change much to change everything."

—Mark Rosewater

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The Back Hills – Year 9A.K. (After Kyūbi)

Today was going to be the first day of a new era. Today was going to be the day Naruto finally found a place to belong...

...But right now, he was hungry. He'd find an item from an enemy ninja, after getting some lunch from that bird's nest and… _okay shiny metal things do not belong in birds' nests_. Naruto reached in to pluck whatever it was out and…

…"YES! This definitely belonged to an enemy ninja!" Naruto broke out, as he held the object up. A foreign kunai would definitely qualify.

_Now Hibachi's definitely gonna let be join his group! No more alone! Ever! Lunch can wait. I've gotta get back. _

Naruto's thoughts drifted for a moment to Iruka-sensei and how he'd tried to stop him.

_Of course he did. He had that look. **The Look.** Nobody who has that look wants me around. It's like they're all out to get me or something._

Naruto knew 'the look'. It hurt it so much, and It didn't stop hurting, no matter how many times he saw it. It was like his very existence was an insult to people here. He'd seen Iruka-sensei do it too. For a little while he'd hoped he might be different, but he was wrong. He was the same. They were all the same.

_Iruka-sensei said, _'**Don't bother with this kid'. **Tch, s_tory of my freaking life._

_Ha! Baka-sensei can go to hell then!._

After his prank on them for leaving him out of the test of courage, Hibachi had finally come around and accepted him into his group. All he had to do was grab something that belonged to an enemy ninja as a test, then done! All those bastards with their looks could shove it! He was gonna have friends and there was nothing more they could do about it!

He thought for a moment about carrying it in his hand while he ran, but decided against it in case he tripped with it or something. He shivered at the thought of getting friends the day he accidentally impaled himself. He slipped it into one of his utility pockets in his ¾ shorts.

He began to run back through the forest wandering what he'd do with friends first. He'd seen so many things that friends did together had wanted to try it all and…

Three black-clad figures emerged, faster than he even knew people could move.

"Hey kid", the middle one grunted.

"What?" Naruto narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "Who are you three?"

_Weirdos_

The middle one spoke again. "We saw you pick up that kunai earlier." They outstretched their open palm. "Hand it over kid. Nice and easy"

Naruto almost looked to the pocket he stashed the kunai before reacting to the demand. "N..NO WAY!" Naruto jerked back a little. "I can't hand this over!" He really couldn't. It was the key to a better life. No way was he giving that up. He hoped they didn't see which of his many pockets he stashed it in. Luckily they were baggy enough to hide it.

The middle one, who Naruto was beginning to think was their leader, due to the other two having not spoken a word yet, drew their sword. "I see. It looks like we'll be taking it by force then." The other two drew their swords too.

_Oh crap! I did not think that through!_

"H..hey. W..wait a second!_"_

He turned to run, but everything just… faded to black.

* * *

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"Sir, was that really necessary?" one of the Takigakure ninja asked as she eyed the unconscious body of the blonde kid. "I figured we could have some fun teaching the kid about why you don't mess with Taki kunoichi."

The team leader snapped her head around as she picked up the body. "Quiet. We don't' have time for that. We all heard that other shinobi calling out a name in the forest, probably this kid's."

_Naruto. _She churned the name over in her head. _Why is that name familiar?_

"So… What's that plan then?" The third asked.

"We don't know where he has the kunai with the info" the leader answered. They had seen him pick it up, but he'd dropped out their vision for a moment afterwards. When he came back into their line of sight, he wasn't holding the kunai anymore. "We take the kid with us out if immediate danger of Konoha shinobi and head towards Taki. When he wakes up, we'll make him either give it to us, or tell us where he hid it if that's what happened." Her two subordinates nodded.

"What do we do with him then?" One asked, her hand drifting slightly towards her kunai holster.

"Depends", came the leader's response. "If they're important? Ransom. Useful? We'll present them before the Leader of Takigakure and let them decide. If none of those…" She let the sentence linger unfinished, knowing she didn't need to. Her squad mates nodded and they moved out.

"Naruto!" Came a voice.

"Tch" Leader muttered. "Come on. That wasn't that far off."

* * *

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_Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! I can to believe I let this happen!._

Iruka was in a blind panic now. He'd expected to find Naruto relatively quickly after he'd run off but the kid was nowhere to be seen. Worst of all, he knew it was his fault. He'd treated the boy like he _was_ what he_ contained_. Like some kind of plague, to be ignored or actively avoided. Worst of all he'd actually encouraged it among his students!

_I'm an awful shinobi, an awful teacher, hell I'm an awful person! What the hell am I going to do If I can't find him!_

He darted through the tree branches in no coherent direction.

Left

Right

Up

Under

There was nothing in the prior battleground but weapons and the occasional corpse. The fact that most of the environment was already torn up made it ridiculously difficult to track, as the terrain was already disturbed. One more kid adding to it by traipsing around wasn't going to leave much of a mark among others. If he was an Inuzuka or perhaps an Aburame he might have fared better. What he really needed was someone who specialised in tracking, or at least had resources available to him that got them close to it.

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Konoha – High street – Mai's Snack Stand

"Alright then. You two, go back to class." Kakashi smiled with a posture that indicated nothing was wrong. Blatant body-language lies of course. There was _so much_ wrong right now. "You know just because you have a free period, you can't skip out on the academy"

The young Nara rose an eyebrow, but let the matter drop. "Okay. Come on Chōji", he sighed as they both began walking back towards the academy.

Kakashi waited until they were both out of sight and earshot before vanishing, darting in the direction of the Back Hills as fast as he could.

Buildings blurred and vanished beneath his feet.

Trees eventually replaced them as sped through the beginnings of the forest.

_Don't' let me be too late. Please, I can't fail this time too._

_._

* * *

_._

_._

Inside a certain seal

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He slept. There really was little else to do, aside from scheming on occasion, but it would be a very long time before any could come about.

"WARNING"

Eyes snapped open.

"WARNING_"_

_I know that voice_

"WARNING"

_It's **him**. _

"WARNING"

_What's that clever bastard of a mortal done now? Wasn't it enough for him to seal me in yet ANOTHER human?_

"WARNING"

He'd learned his name after the sealing.

_Minato_

He still sensed the wisps of two sentient souls running though the seal that held him. This wasn't really either of them though. Certainly not _him._ The real one would only be able to materialise for a limited time and not long at that either. The other had a stronger overall presence that he recognised, but refused to acknowledge, which suited them both just fine. No, this was obviously set up to respond to… something.

"Host detection of possible threat to continued existence…"

_What?! No! I haven't even gotten a fair shake at escaping from this blasted prison yet! My soul and his are still blinded..._

"Stand by" the voice droned. "Temporary relaxation of seal pending. Awaiting further information"

The fox's eyes widened, before a feral and entirely (unbeknown to him) Naruto-like grin broke out across him.

_Oh you clever little human. How did you fight me and make something like this at the same time? Hmmm, looks like whoever it is that's a danger to my host, if they prove themselves life-threatening…_

_I might get to have some fun. Vicarious as it might be._

"**Temporary** relaxation of seal", the voice repeated. "Don't get too cocky"

Kurama whipped his head around, looking for signs of the sentience he'd briefly felt, but it was gone as quickly as it came, hiding, preserving its existence once more. He let out a growl, which, in turn, eventually devolved into a low chuckle.

_Perhaps a little too clever_

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_A/N Hi and welcome to my second fanfic. If author's notes aren't really your thing then just know that I'm glad you read and I hope you enjoyed it._

_Stuff:_

_The Taki Kunoichi - They have no fucking names and its getting on my tits. As such, when they finally take their masks off, I'm giving them names. Who knows. I might even make them more than a trio of throw-away villians, whose only purpose was to Bring Iruka and Naruto together. Because, lets be honest, their real names were 'plot devices one, two and three', who happen to be immune to Naruto's weaponized attractive gender-bending jutsu. So yea... there's that.  
_

_Again, as with my last fic, I like to check up on Kurama every now and again. He's an integral part of the plot, but is stuck doing nothing most of the time. Also, The ass pull in cannon that's used to explain Naruto meeting a certain two people comes ridiculously out of left field. So I'm working them into the plot from the start. _

_Plot wise: __For the record the__'nail', or __divergence point, is that Naruto stashes the intel kunai and the __Taki Kunoichi waste no time in just knocking him out and dealing with him later. I made it much clearer what it was in 'Fate Chaos and Plans', so here it is if you're manga only and don't watch the anime.  
_

_Again, as with my last fic, NO OOC yaoi, which for this franchise (as far as I know) means no yaoi._

_Pairings? Read and see. I might surprise you... _

_No lemons. However, I make not such promises regarding cheap innuendos and crass language. I mean if you can kill people for a living and not drop an F-bomb then I don't know what the fuck is happening.  
_

_Rating? Probably T but with a verse full of super-powered assassins... well.. yea._

_Lastly, comes shameless self endorsement. If you didn't find this from the recommendation in my other Naruto fanfic. __It's a 'for want of a nail' fic with a different nail and a different focus. B__e sure to check it out on my page or here: 's/9235378/1/Fate-Chaos-and-Plans' (not sure if link works)  
_


	2. Chapter 2

"**Temporary** relaxation of seal", the voice repeated. "Don't get too cocky"

Kurama whipped his head around, looking for signs of the sentience he'd briefly felt, but it was gone as quickly as it came, hiding, preserving its existence once more. He let out a growl, which, in turn, eventually devolved into a low chuckle.

_Perhaps a little too clever_

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Luck and Anarchy - Chapter 2 – 'The Chase' or 'Hostage Sympathy'

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"The problem with quotes on the Internet is that it's so hard to verify if they're real."

-Abraham Lincoln on Wrongful Attribution

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Back Hills – 10pm

_Oh this can't be good._

"Iruka…" Kakashi stopped beside the man. He had thought... he had hoped... that at worst he would be staging a daring rescue for the Chūnin and his student while the former was protecting him from any apparent danger. Instead he had found the man frantically scouring the woods, obviously in hysterics and completely clueless.

His head snapped round. In recognising him, Iruka became almost euphoric. "Kakashi! Thank god you're here! Naruto's… my student's… the one I told you about before…" His eyes were frantic as they betrayed his brain's desperate attempts to turn his thoughts into words. "He's in trouble! I found him, but I lost him! I haven't been able to find him again! It's been too long and the Intel regarding lingering spies! And I'm not even specialised in tracking and…"

"Breath Iruka"

The Chūnin's eyes widened momentarily. He breathed. His eyes focused again, more resolved this time. "The battlefield's too torn up for my level of tracking. But you have ninken…"

"Yes. I do." Kakashi agreed.

_Should have done this the moment I heard. _

His hands flew through seals.

"Boar"

"Dog"

"Bird"

"Monkey"

"Ram"

_No need to be conservative today. Sensei's legacy is on the line._

"Summoning Technique!"

His entire Ninja Hound squad burst through smoke into existence in a collective pose strongly reminiscent of a B-movie, Akino's sunglasses certainly didn't help with that. Akino spoke first, "Combat?"

"Tracking", Kakashi responded, waiting for the pack to reorganise itself. The leader, when Kakashi wasn't around,was always the best at the given task.

Pakkun stepped forward to assume the position. "Hostile?"

"Ally, kidnapped"

"Name and scent if we don't have it already"

"Naruto Uzumaki"

"Got it. Let's go"

All the other ninken darted in zigzags while keeping up to ensure nobody slipped through the net while Pakkun led Kakashi and Iruka along the main scent. Kakashi let out a small thank you to whatever deity out there that would listen that Iruka hadn't asked why he had already familiarised his ninken with the Naruto's scent.

_Yea, that might bring me into an awkward conversation later._

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Taki/Konoha border – Thursday 10pm

_._

"Traps?" The leader asked.

"Set. We've also been coating ourselves, our trails, including the false ones, with pheromones of like, eight different kinds. It might not stop the best trackers who go by scent, but it'll definitely slow them down. If we end up not having to take the kid with us, we'll be nigh uncatchable"

"That's damn good work, and good thinking." Leader smirked beneath her mask, "I knew I brought you on this mission for _some_ reason." she responded. "Let's make camp and search the kid properly. Wait... Actually I've got a better idea. Wake him up and we can see how easy it'll be to get him to co-operate with us." She sighed, finally glad to be giving her next order, "head masks can come off too, it's too damn humid for this kind of clothing ".

"You sure sir? The kid's gonna see…"

"None of our faces are famous and the mission was botched enough as it was by our deceased predecessor for Konoha to know we're Taki. No Intel to lose. Human face might make the kid cooperative though…"

Her subordinates nodded and practically ripped off their masks. Not that she could blame them, she was doing it too. The paniced activity that they'd gone through when they'd realised they were being followed was so much that the masks clung to their sweat ridden skin. Feeling the fresh air hit her bare face was almost euphoric.

Nina ran her fingers through her shoulder length silver hair. She turned to Yumi and Himeko. Yumi was, to Nina's amusement, having trouble making sense of her tangled long brown hair.

"Alright. Wake the kid up so I can see to him." Nina ordered. Yumi raised an eyebrow. "Oh for god's sake, stop being such a child and do it already."

"Fine, fine". Yumi waved. She propped the kid up against a rock and lightly slapped him on the cheek. She readied her hand for a harder attempt but noticed the kid's eyes begin to flicker open.

Nina ushered her two comrades away before squatting in front of the boy. She inwardly chuckled as his face betrayed his thought process. She figured she might as well get the ball rolling.

"Before you do anything. Think about where you are, or in this case where you aren't. Then who we are. Then who you are in comparison." To his credit, he silently and quite obviously did so, the blatant fear and despair spreading across his face.

"Now. I think I already know… Naruto?" Nina queried, remembering the yelling she'd heard earlier. Luckily it had moved in the wrong direction, probably not a tracker by specialty.

Shock hit the boy all over again. "…H..how did… Iruka sensei!"

_Hmm probably the boy's sensei then. Sharp for him to catch on that quickly though._

"He's fine". Visible relief flooded the kid's face before he grew stern.

"How do i-"

"-know I'm not lying? Because things wouldn't be as they are now if we'd actually run into him" This time the boy missed the implication. She sighed, "Me and mine would either be dead, or you'd be waking up to me covered in a lot of blood. So relax, things turned out for the best." His expression became a little solemn at how grim 'the best' looked like, but he was taking it a hell of a lot better than some other kids around his age probably would have.

"Now we have a certain kunai which you still have on you to talk about." His eyes shot down for a moment in panic before quickly coming back up to hold eye-contact.

_Left leg on shorts. Outer thigh. Good to know_. Better start with the easy stuff.

"Why are you holding onto a Takigakure kunai like it's worth more than your life Naruto?" In all honesty Nina was actually rather curious as to his involvement in this entire incident. It's not like children just went on strolls though battlefields.

His eyes narrowed on her for a moment and then they dropped to the ground, mortified. "Test… I w..was gonna join a group. T..they said I only could if I went to the Back Hills and got an item belonging to one of the enemy ninja who'd died, then I'd be in. They said the fighting was over. I..it wasn't, was it?" And then it dawned on Nina what had _really_ happened.

_Some kids actually thought It'd be **funny** to get him killed. What the hell am I supposed to say to that?_

"No" was all she said. All there was to say really.

His blue eyes shimmered, tears started rolling down his face. His hand, shaking, slowly reached into his pocket and took out the kunai. He allowed a moment of anger to flood across his face as he stabbed the ground next to him with it. Then there was only sorrow. No apparent desire for revenge, just... hurt

Nina picked up the kunai, storing it away in one of her own uniform's compartments. Naruto took not the slightest interest, still in shock that his supposed peers had tried to get him killed. She allowed herself a moment of satisfaction.

_Mission: fucking finally accomplished_

"Back in a moment. If you move more than a meter, I'll kill you." She didn't think she really needed to say it, and she was right. Hell she wasn't even sure the kid had heard her. She walked out of earshot as she came to Yumi and Himeko.

"You hear all that?" Nina asked. They both nodded.

"Well, fuck me sideways", Yumi blurted. "I didn't think Konoha was so cutthroat. Hell even Kirigakure might raise an eyebrow at that"

"No they wouldn't", Himeko corrected her.

"Still though, that's some rough shit". Nobody disagreed.

"Shame it doesn't really change the plan though. Although, I guess defecting wouldn't be out of the question for the kid right now" Yumi added. Himeko scoffed, while Nina grunted in agreement.

They all looked over at Naruto who'd curled his knees into his chest.

"We'll stick with the plan." Nina finally said. "If he's worth it, we take him. If not, we don't need him slowing us down when we're this close to being home free." They grunted in acknowledgement.

_Sorry kid, but I don't carry dead weight. Although, that doesn't mean that I won't be able to find something important about you... _

She walked back over to Naruto, standing above him, waiting for him to look up at her. He did, his eyes still puffy from, well… Nina really didn't need to be thinking about that right now.

"Time to find out if we keep you alive." A little more attention this now. "So, I ask questions, you answer them. If you're lucky, I find something worth taking you with me. If not, I promise you won't even feel it" Let it never be said that she didn't treat him like an adult, which in retrospect, Nina realised was a horrible thing to do to a kidnapped child. Still, apparently appreciating whatever kind of brutal honesty had been extend to him, he nodded, wiping his eyes dry.

"Name?"

"N..Naruto Uzumaki"

_Uzumaki? Good start. They're rare enough as it is. Wish I could remember why his given name bugs me so much though… anyway._

"_Family?"_

He just shook his head

_Shit. No ransom then._

"All of them?"

"K..Kyūbi"

_Ah_

"Guardian then?"

"What?" Naruto asked, obviously not knowing what she was getting at.

"The name of the person or orphanage that's looking after you", Nina clarified.

"Oh. Thrown out of t..the orphanage when I was… Seven… I think. I look after myself. I think the state office was supposed to pay for my rent until I graduated the academy. They don't, but does that count?"

_No __kid__, it really __**really **__doesn't ._

"Nobody actually looking out for you though?"

"Um… there's Jiji. He takes me out for ramen and asks how stuff's going"

_Jiji? Old man?_

"Yea, that does it. Who's Jiji?"

"The Hokage"

_Alright, the Hok-**WHAT**!  
_

"S..say that again?"

"Hokage?"

"You're telling me, that the leader of the Village, Hidden in the Leaves, the most powerful ninja in the fire nation, unofficially known as 'The Professor', personally takes time out of his day to buy you meals and ask you how your life is?"

"Oh... I never really thought of it like that. I guess it's a little weird" His face was the picture of (admittedly confused) honesty. Nina knew she wasn't being lied to.

_Jackpot_

She reached into her bag. Naruto winced. She sighed, "I told you that you wouldn't know it was coming if I did, so stop worrying about something you have no power over." She tossed the blanket she'd grabbed over him. "You're good enough to take to our leader and have him decide what to do with you. You'll probably be ransomed back through proxy within a week or two. She began walking away, "Now, get some rest. We leave early"

She didn't turn back as she walked away, but that didn't stop her from hearing the crying.

Himiko spoke up, "he coming with us?"

"Yea, he's coming with us. Get a few hours' sleep. We leave early and we don't stop until we make it to a hidden village that's actually hidden"

They chuckled as they obliged.

_An oldie but a goodie. _

_._

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Land of fire: Takigakure's border – Friday 7:30am

.

"This is it" Kakashi lamented.

_It's over. _

_We lost them._

_** I** lost them._

Iruka turned, "what do you mean Kakashi-san? We need only pursue them past the border. I mean they crossed first, so diplomatically..."

"Not what I'm talking about Iruka." Kakashi interrupted . "You remember Pakkun, talking about those chemicals throwing off the scent?" _Those blasted chems had them slowing down to half their damn speed while the ninken were forced to work through that crap._ "Pakkun recognised them. They're Taki made. Its one of their great defences and also one of the reasons why nobody has ever actually found their village before. The wild-life in Taki is freakish. Many of the plants mask all other scents with their own. Some of our scouts actually think they train the wildlife to manufacture fake tracks. Hell we'd probably even run into the plants they used to synthesize those chemicals if we crossed the border." He stared at the ground in shame. "If we cross that border, risking an international incident in doing so, without the Hokage's permission at that, we will, in all likelihood, lose their trail within a few miles of entering. It's their turf then and they know how to use it to shake us"

"So we give up?! We abandon him?!" Iruka burst out in furious indignation. "He's supposed to be my student! and now! he's… he's…"

"We have to leave it in the Hokage's hands now. He'll get him back. From what you've told me, they probably don't even know who he is." Kakashi tried to console him. "Once they do, he'll probably be returned as fast as they can move him to avoid a diplomatic incident. Villages know that other villages, in general, don't like their Jinchūriki stolen from them" It stung him as he heard himself refer to the boy as a thing. But right now, the 'thing' had better chances of being returned safe than the unlucky kid.

Iruka nodded, following the same painful train of thought. He bowed his head.

"let's get going"

* * *

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A/N

Welcome to chapter 2.

I said I'd be giving the Taki Kunoichi names and there they are. They are not in reference to any anime character out there. I just plucked some names out and went with them. They got upgraded to actual human beings rather than cheap villains of the weak. Not necessarily nice human beings, but still.

One of the key things I adressed,was Hibach's betrayal, which really should have hit Naruto harder once he realised what was going on, but was overshadowed by his relationship with Iruka in the anime. So without that distraction, yes it got dark, as was necessary. Because when someone who you thought could be your first real friend, sets you up to get killed... well yea...

Reviews!:

I try to respond to all, but as with my last fic, there will be times when they outnumber my efforts.

Hektols - Your are of course (partially) correct. There will be epic panic. You may find it amusing.

LuxEterna1 - Thanks for confirming problem with link. Please read on then :)

skywardwaker - Many thanks, I'll try to keep you reading.


	3. Chapter 3

"So we give up?! We abandon him?!" Iruka burst out in furious indignation. "He's supposed to be my student! and now! he's… he's…"

"We have to leave it in the Hokage's hands now. He'll get him back. From what you've told me, they probably don't even know who he is." Kakashi tried to console him. "Once they do, he'll probably be returned as fast as they can move him to avoid a diplomatic incident. Villages know that other villages, in general, don't like their Jinchūriki stolen from them" It stung him as he heard himself refer to the boy as a thing. But right now, a 'thing' had better chances of being returned safe than some unlucky kid.

Iruka nodded, following the same painful train of thought. He bowed his head.

"Let's get going"

* * *

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Luck and Anarchy – Chapter 3

"Look at it all... Why don't they just drown us as infants? Why wait? Why give us the illusion of hope?"

—First Enchanter Orsino, Dragon Age II

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* * *

...

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_Woa its just… Woa._

Naruto hadn't said anything for the entire journey. He'd just remained quiet, more or less vacant of thought. He was curious as to why they'd stopped for the first time today, but was quite content to just stare at the wander of nature before him. Naruto hadn't ever seen a waterfall before. So to see the one, which, unknown to him, was acknowledged to be one of the most spectacular waterfalls in the world, had left him awe.

"Alright kid." The lady with the silver hair said. "You're wearing a blindfold from here on, and for god's sake tell me if it comes loose, if you end up seeing the entrance to our village, and we'll know if you have, then we'll have to kill you no matter what you're worth."

Naruto swallowed, but nodded.

_I guess they take this stuff seriously._

His carrier nodded in return "Good, you'll also have to follow my instructions to the letter, especially holding your breath when I tell you to" Naruto looked a little confused, but nodded again all the same.

_What? Are we going underwater?_ _Do they have an underwater village? Because that would be really epic._

Naruto felt happy for the first time in a while. Appreciating something he deemed 'epic', had taken his mind off of… things… for a moment anyway. He let the woman tie the black fabric around his head, everything going dark.

"Can you see?"

"Um, a little bit of sunlight is coming through, like a little I mean. But I can't see anything." Naruto felt it best to respond as honestly as possible just in case the sunlight was a problem. So far, despite knocking him out and kidnapping him, he'd found the three ninja to have treated him better than most of the villagers had, which, upon realising, made him a little sad. They'd fed him, given him a blanket so he wouldn't go to sleep cold and explained why they did what they were doing when they did. Probably so he would cooperate.

"You're fine", one of them said, he couldn't see who.

_Hehe, kinda the point I guess._

Naruto felt himself being lifted back up over a shoulder, he guessed the same person's as their shoulder was still warm from his body heat.

Time passed as he felt the general jolts of ninja leaps. After another ten … fifteen?... Naruto wasn't sure how long it was. He began to feel sprays of water wash over him as they slowed to a stop.

"Alright kid. Hold your breath".

He breathed in and held it, but almost let it out as he felt himself submerged in water. It rushed past him as his carrier pelted the water behind them.

_I know things haven't been going my way right now, but if anything's out there, __**please **__let there be an underwater hidden ninja village._

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Konoha - Hokage's Tower

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"This is clearly an act of war!"

_Oh god, I'm too old for this shit._

Hiruzen really was getting on. He was in the latter half of his sixties and he damn well wasn't getting any younger.

_Dammit Minato, why'd you have to go and leave me this damn job?_

He looked over at his '_confidants_'; Utatane Koharu, Mitokado Homura and Shimura Danzō. Hiruzen sighed as he finally responded. "It's clearly no such thing Danzō. I've received messenger hawks from Hatake Kakashi and Umino Iruka, whom are currently en-route, back to the village as we speak. From what we've gleaned so far, Naruto was tricked by one of his classmates into venturing into the field, unaware of the dangers."

Hiruzen took a drag, inhaling before allowing the smoke to slowly drift from his mouth.

"They probably took him as an easy grab without knowing how important he was. Believe me, they know they _do not _want a war with us right now." Hiruzen knew what he was talking about and it was about time he got some recognition for it. He was getting tired of Danzō rallying behind the 'let's declare war on it' response to a growing number of situations. What he knew, in particular, this time though, was about the change in leadership around a year ago.

_Right now, Takigakure is being run by a blasted fifteen year old, with all the skill of a high level genin at most. Not to mention that he's about as intimidating as a gerbil and not the summoning animals either.  
_

Hiruzen remembered him from some of the official visits to The Leaf he and his father had made.

_Smart boy, bit of a coward mind you, but sometimes you get heroes who save the day while still scared out of their mind. I know I was on some of my missions when I was his age. There's no possible way that he ordered this. He's too smart not to know that aggravating us with anything more than testing our borders is suicide.  
_

Hiruzen allowed an inward chuckle. It was kind of sad really that in this world, even allies attacked each other on occasion, _just _to make sure their friends were on their toes. Hell, he would actually get nervous if an allied village didn't launch a skirmish on occasion in an attempt to gain an upper hand, especially if peace treaties were up for redrawing. That reminded him, he'd have to look into why Suna was being so quiet recently. That was strange, especially for them.

He rose from his musings to address his elders. "This is what I plan to do: I will be sending a messenger bird, explaining who they've captured and exactly how much it would agitate us if they don't plan on returning him, post haste. I may even demand that one of ours pick him up from them. Now, it will probably take a while, as their blasted messaging system is complicated to all hell so as to keep their village's location secret. We'll have to allow for a few days." Danzō looked like he was about to stand up in protest. "_IF _we don't hear from them," Hiruzen snapped out, shooting a 'sit down and shut up' glare at him, "_then, _we'll start looking at some you _your_ suggestions Danzō." That seemed to placate him for the moment. "Koharu? Homura?"

The two both exchanged a look before Homura spoke, "Neither of us have any major gripes with your plan Hiruzen. As long as we get the boy back we need not worry about a village with a leader younger than my grandchildren". This earned a few chuckles from all of them, including Danzō.

"Very well then," Hiruzen concluded.

_I hope you respond quickly Shibuki, for your sake.  
_

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* * *

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Takigakure - Leader's office

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"Leader Shibuki-sama?"

A fifteen year old snapped back to his senses "S..sorry… Yes?" He responded timidly to his assistant. Well, he responded that way to everyone really.

_Father, how could you leave me to this? I'm too young to be cut out for this line of work! _

His assistant just smiled softly at him, "We were discussing the new curriculum for academy students Shibuki-sama..."

Shibuki composed himself, embarrassed that he'd been caught lost in thought. "My apologies, shall we continue-" He was interrupted by three sharp knocks at his office's door.

He wasn't given a chance to signal his approval or denial of entrance as three kunoichi burst into the room, a young blond boy, about the age of nine wearing a hoodie in tow. It was no secret that many of the shinobi had been less satisfied than the civilian population with him succeeding his late father. Minor infringements upon his dignity like this had become a common occurrence. Himeko, Yumi and Nina were far from the worst though and he had wanted them reporting straight to him when they got back anyway. He decided to take hold of the situation. "Report", he ordered with a surprising (even to him) amount of authority.

Himeko and Yumi stepped back as Nina stepped forward, indicating her position as team leader. "The mission to test Konoha's borders and gain information went south before we even arrived. The guys you sent ahead of us got caught up and killed in a battle after they got the patrol Intel, which is probably useless now. The whole situation nearly got us killed in the process." This was not what Shibuki wanted to hear, his facial expression indicating as much.

_We were only supposed to be going through the motions of flexing our muscles! Hell Konoha gets nervous when we __**don't**__ do it every few years or so! How the hell did it go south that fast!?_

Nina continued, looking a little awkward, "then things got complicated"

_Oh god no._

"T..that wasn't it?"

"No," Nina responded. The blonde stepped forward at her gesture. "This one somehow managed to stumble his way onto the battlefield, _and _pick up the kunai with the Intel we needed on it."

"So you decided to take him with you?!" Shibuki asked incredulously.

"We saw him pick it up, but he'd stashed it. When we caught him we were low on time before being discovered ourselves, with not nearly enough for a full body search. It was either take him with us for the time being or abandon the mission. After we got it off of him on our way here…" Nina paused, withdrawing said kunai and laying it on Shibuki's desk. "… we decided the kid might be useful, so we brought him to you."

_ME?! You're giving him to me?! _Shibuki desperately hoped that his expression didn't give away his current (horribly panicked) thoughts. _ Calm down, calm down. I'm actually good with children. I just need to know who he is and what we need to do with him._

Shibuki sighed in a manner that was _far _too old for him. "Alright, what's his name?"

Nina smirked, obviously quite proud of herself. "Get this sir, he's an Uzumaki". The boy looked a little perplexed at the reference to his family name as an asset.

_Uzumaki? Wow, thats... actually is quite a find. Dad said most died out after the invasion of Uzushiogakure. Although our spies did mention that one of them was the new… na, it's not like he's __**that **__Uzumaki._

Nina continued, "…on top of that he has a close personal relation to the Hokage ."

_Ohhhh nonono_

"Defiantly worth something, no? Apparently the guy takes huge chunks out of his day _just _to check up on the kid!"

_NO! NO! NO! Please just tell me he's just related to someone important! I'd rather we'd __**just**__ kidnapped the __head of the __Hyūga clan's heir!_

"And this is an orphan we're talking about here too, no important family relations at all…"

"OH MY GOD HE'S THAT UZUMAKI!" Everyone in the room recoiled, said Uzumaki included.

Nina was the first to respond. "…Sir?"

But Shibuki had snapped. This was the last straw. "Do you have ANY idea who you kidnapped!?" Nina took a step back, surprised by her leader's reaction. His eyes suddenly seemed distant, "oh god, they'll see this as an act of war..."

The blonde was looking concerned too. Nina finally asked the million ryō question, "Sir... who is he?"

"NARUTO UZUMAKI?! OH, ONLY THE CURRENT HOST FOR THE **KYŪBI NO YŌKO**, THE MOST POWERFUL BIJŪ **IN EXISTENCE!**..." Shibuki was in hysterics. "…AND! well, I'm just gonna go out on a limb here, BUT **I THINK** KONOHA** MIGHT **WANT HIM BACK!"

Shibuki was panting in exhausted outrage as the rest of the room simply gaped at him, then at Naruto. " T..the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox is… sealed… inside... me?" Naruto spluttered as he appeared to be in a simultaneous state of immense shock and sudden comprehension. He now had the attention of everyone in the room.

_He didn't know... But... Oh god! Now I just broke 'that' (admittedly, completely useless, considering every shinobi nation knows but that doesn't really matter right now) law! I would've at least thought they'd tell __**him **__though. I mean come on!_

Nina, was again, the first to recover her senses. "So… what are our orders?" she asked, completely unsure of her situation.

Shibuki's brain jump started, his responsibility to his village, temporarily overriding the immense sense of panic and horrifying dread he was feeling. "R..right, um orders"

_Quickly! Come on! think Shibuki! You're meant to be good at this! Just the start of a plan is better than nothing!_

"A..alright". Shibuki looked over to a near catatonic Naruto, obviously suffering from the information dump he'd just been subjected to, not under the most calming conditions either. "We wait for word from Konoha. Sarutobi won't go to war over this right off the bat… probably…hopefully. Anyway, we get a message from them and let them instruct us on how they want this to go down. The true story is so ridiculously coincidental that they'd probably never believe it anyway." The kunoichi nodded, while his secretary was already off the check for the latest messages. He quietly assured himself that if he got his village out of this in one piece then he'd be getting a damn sight more respect than he was at the moment.

_Alright. Okay okay okay. What's next?_

Shibuki looked over at the bijū container. In truth, it was actually keeping it while they waited that was the problem. The ninja population in Taki was low as hell and the three chūnin standing in front of him were among his best. There was no way he could keep him here. If Naruto started drawing on the Fox's chakra, which Shibuki had so helpfully informed him of (he winced) then they wouldn't need Konoha to attack them for their village to get wrecked. No, what he needed was someone who had strength to rival a jinchūriki-.

Then it hit him.

_Oh, well Duh._

"We keep _him_ with Fū" Shibuki whispered, although the three ninja standing in front of him still heard, the visible shock on their faces betraying them. Nobody liked to talk about _that one_. He ran the idea through a mental checklist aloud so as to be corrected if he got anything wrong. "Outside the village, check. Powerful guard, check. Minimum risk to Takigakure, check. Yes… this could work." The kunoichi seemed to approve as well, following his train of thought. He shot another glance at the blonde.

_Still introverted, we can work with that._

He scrawled a few basic instructions, that basically amounted to 'Nina I write this so he can't hear in case it sets him off. Knock the kid out and leave him with Fū'. He tossed the scroll to her. She glanced at it before nodding.

She walked softly up behind him, applying a light shop to the neck, catching him as he fell. "This one's certainly had a rough time of it" she muttered.

"Hurry", Shibuki ordered. "The further away from the village the host is, the less damage done if and when they becomes unstable". Nina shot an awkward look at the boy which Shibuki couldn't decipher. Then she was gone. Ninja were good like that. Shibuki ran his hands through his hair, letting out a sigh of relief as he found himself alone, before the panic set in again.

_Father, why am I here?_

_._

* * *

_._

_A/N_

_Here and now you should know, I am intending to let this get lighter, eventually. Things however ended up like this._

_I'll get the ball rolling by perhaps surprising you with by next statement. I don't like Shibuki. At first I was cool with him while doing research for this chapter as i watched the OVA. Did you know, he was actually the first Ova character to make it into (referenced) the anime? However, I quickly lost sympathy after I read up on Fū. All I really had to go on for his father's death was 'many years ago' from the OVA. So he's leader at 15, having had to take over (in cannon for some reason?) around a year ago. Nice guy to team 7... eventually, and wants to protect his village, sure I'm cool with that. Then you hear that __Fū_ was actually isolated **outside** the village and that nobody, not anyone, tried to stop the Akatsuki from moving in on her. He did nothing. What. the. fuck. Only Suna tops that. As such, with the fact that I spent a hell of a lot of time narrating from his perspective, you may have noticed... questionable thoughts on his part. I can see things from his character's perspective sure, i just don't really like all of what I see.  


_Soon we actually get the ball rolling. You'll know what I mean by that when It happens. Or not, point is, it will._

_We are meeting __Fū_ soon and I am terrified of how to portray her as her brief show of personality in the manga completely contradicts how_ the __Akatsuki_ described her beforehand. I'll figure it out. With that in mind I'm going to be focusing on this fic until I get her introduction done.  


_Kind of a depressing quote at the top today (I am a massive Dragon Age fan, can't wait for their showing of the new one at E3 this year). But then again, If we look at Naruto's perspective of whats going on with him, its kind of fitting, if horrifically so. I **swear ** this is going to get lighter. _

_Reviews:_

_MOVISION - They're 9. You might be waiting a while on that._

_Hektols - As always, you are right. Keep reading and I'll see if I can't actually surprise you._

_mattcgw - Thanks, and very soon to answer your question._

_deathstalker982 - Thanks. I already responded to your massive review. Hope you like where I'm **actually** going._


	4. Chapter 4

_Note - Like so many anime fans, I have been watching Attack on Titan (its awesome, go watch it if you haven't been). Anyway I wrote this chapter, and recommend you read it while listening to the OST Track 6 - Army⇒G | Army Attack on my mp3 player. A link would be right about... here -  watch?v=7Da6WE0IvaU - With that in mind, enjoy the chapter :)  
_

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* * *

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Luck and Anarchy – Chapter 4 – 'Commonality Connection' or 'The Girl with a Name'

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_I am The Nameless One."_

— _Planescape: Torment_

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* * *

_._

_._

_Wow… just… wow._

The aroma hit her, intoxicating as it whispered sweet nothings, drifting through her. The sound of flesh sizzling in the fire almost caused her to quiver with anticipation. Her mouth watered, pupils dilated as she shifted, grinding her teeth in anticipation.

_Still can't believe I found a Deer in these forests! I've never seen one around here before. Must've wandered off or something…_

She'd spotted it running through the forest this morning. It'd taken her the entire day to line up the traps with the direction she would scare it in. She took another whiff of the smell as the fire cooked her meal.

_So worth it though. I would've hunted for two… no- three days for a meal like this one. This this is going to be the best meal I've had since… since…_

The girl shook off her current line of thought, not liking where it was heading. Returning to sharpening her kunai as she waited for her meal to cook, she was once again forced to acknowledge how old (or at least worn) they were. What made it worse was that it didn't look like she was getting any new ones, her last supply drop being… she couldn't remember how long ago. As such, she had to maintain what she had, although the girl had begun to ponder on the problem _that _presented as well.

_Half ones the traps launched didn't even pierce the skin. If I don't fix these better, I might as well just start loading the traps up with stones._

The problem, that her idea of weapon care was scraping the edge of the blade against a stone (she had no clue if it really helped) had forced her to confront the fact that her total lack of knowledge regarding weapon maintenance had left her working with the only (probably not very good) idea she had when it came to keeping her limited supply of weaponry sharp. After all, it wasn't like anyone was going to help her with-

She shook the train of thought off again. She wouldn't let anything spoil her mood right now. In fact, she'd go so far as to say that there was nothing that could ruin her meal, absolutely noth-

The girl jumped to her feet. '_On freaking cue, I swear!' _She thought. Still holding the kunai, her body twisted as she attempted to form a mock battle stance while turning to be met by…

_A kunoichi._

The woman wore all black, even covering her face. The only apparent information available was Taki's village symbol on her forehead protector, inferring her allegiance.

_This can't be good._

The girl hadn't seen anyone from the village since the last supply drop which was about… she still wasn't sure. A year? Two? Seasons barely changed as time rolled by here. She did know that she was 6 when she last saw her village but after that time had been… difficult to mark. Now a Kunoichi from Taki had shown up and she was understandably concerned. The boy slung over the kunoichi's shoulder wasn't exactly reassuring.

The ninja looked at the girl for a moment, her face betraying nothing, though the length of time may have implied a degree of assessment going on. She finally blinked seemly finished with… something.

She dropped the boy to the ground. "You have a mission", the woman spoke.

_Mission? _The girl repeated the word over in her head, unable to understand._ Is she joking? Does she think I'm just gonna do whatever they want now? _

The woman, either not noticing, or not caring about the girl's inner thoughts continued. "This one needs taking care of, but cannot remain within the village. As such, you will be… _containing _him".

"I'm nine".

_I think,_ She mused. The girl figured that she was probably stronger and faster than most nine-year olds, but her point still stood.

"So is he" the woman deadpanned, not even remotely persuaded by the girl's argument. The girl appeared as if she was about to speak again but cut herself off, internally rejoicing that she at least knew how old she was now. It was a start. Before she could begin arguing with the kunoichi again though-

"-You are the only one… _equipped _to deal with this one."

The girl snarled, low and feral. She could barely believe it, yet at the same time it was all too easy to guess what this was about. It was what everything was always about when it came to her.

_They kicked me out of my own village… when I was __**six**__. I tried so hard to please them, to make them like me, and in the end they still threw me out like some trash! Why should I do anything for them?! And what does she mean '__**equipped**__'? Even if I could make it do what I wanted, why would that help with him?"_

The girl looked at the kunoichi. "How am I equipped?"

"You know how" was all she got in response.

"I can't even use it!" She shouted. In the end she could only shout at them, not that they ever listened. People don't pay attention to what _things _say. That was all they ever saw her as. An 'It', a 'some**thing**', but never a 'some**one**'.

The kunoichi stepped back, but aside from that, appeared unfazed. Rage swelled within the girl as the words, the whispering, rushed to the front of her mind.

She was just nine-year-old girl.

'_Monster'_.

'_She's the Jinchūriki. Just leave her alone, it's for your own good' _

'_Shhh! That one's a Bijū container. She's as likely to turn on us as she is to help us.'_

'_It speaks to her, poisoning her with its words. Even if it seems sweet now, it'll turn on us soon enough'_

'_It's demonic energy, corrupts her, hollowing her out from the inside.'_

'_Just leave her'_

'_Don't touch her'_

'_Don't talk to her'_

'_I just wish she'd… go away' _

She inhaled… and-

"-I'VE NEVER EVEN SEEN IT! YOU ALL KEEP TAKING ABOUT ME LIKE I'M SOME KINDA BIG MONSTER! I'VE NEVER HEARD IT TALK! I'VE NEVER FELT IT'S CHAKRA! IT'S JUST ME HERE! YOU'RE TALKING TO ME! I'M JUST ME! ALL ALONE IN THIS STUPID FOREST!"

The girl looked down, shuddering as tears fell down her cheeks.

"You're _just_ Fū, nobody else. Certainly not what you contain." agreed the kunoichi.

The girl flinched.

_What did she just-Wait..._

Fū. That was her name.

_I have a name… It's been so long and… I… Did I forget? Three years since… I-it's like they took it from me and-_

_**I'm Fū**_

Fū's eyes shot back up to the kunoichi. Said ninja however, was still unfazed. She shifted her body weight as if about to leave, but paused, "The boy shouldn't cause too many difficulties. His name is Naruto Uzumaki. Try to prevent him from running away. It's unlikely that he'd find his way out of the forest, but we don't need him getting himself killed."

Fū winced as she glanced at the blonde, remembering when she'd first realised that she could never return to the village. Those first few months alone in the forest had been…

_He wouldn't be able to escape, even if I let him._

And then the kunoichi was gone. Fū hadn't even seen her leave. Some _monster_ she was. She looked down at the boy, at Naruto. For all the callousness with which he appeared to have been dropped with, she realised that he was in a rather comfortable position, close to the fire too. In fact if she hadn't seen it, she would've guessed that he'd been laid out rather gently. Fū looked in the direction that the woman had disappeared in, Shouting after her, or more likely, at thin air, "I didn't even say I would help!"

_Who __**was**__ that? Three years with nothing more than a few supply drops, then this happens! What the-… hold on… wait… what's that smell? _

Fū's head snapped round as she looked over at the deer.

It was burning

.

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* * *

.**  
**

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Nina raced through the forest, away from her drop off point, weaving her way through the treetops in a blur of motion. She didn't look back.

She only remembered.

Nina could still recall her time as one of the jinchūriki's teachers. She, along with a few other select shinobi, had been assigned to school her in the basics of the ninja arts in preparation for her exile from the village. A tomboy at heart, the green haired girl had joked and goofed around like any other child. Nina had been confused by that. One might say that this was when she'd first questioned the stories.

_Not exactly much of a demon_, Nina thought after she found Fū covered in mud, giggling in the aftermath of a colossal slip into a puddle.

And then Nina had kidnapped another host without even realising it! She'd held the host and threatened to kill him if he moved more than a meter. If what people held as the truth was so, then surely she'd have been ripped apart by the boy on any number of occasions. She didn't imagine a demon would suffer being taken hostage, even if by proxy. Instead, he'd just acted like a typical scared, traumatised child. Because, in the end, that's exactly what he was.

_It doesn't make sense. None of it does. But then… did it ever?_

Images of a little girl protesting in outrage that she would 'just die' if she was made to answer another maths question flashed through Nina's head. She winced.

_She'd been surprised when I said her name._

She had nobody to talk to for three years. Admittedly somebody with a shred of sanity had organised supply drops for her after she'd been left out there, not that they'd actually talked to her. Even then, those had been stopped by the 'new elders' soon enough. Not that Shibuki put up any resistance.

'_A waste of resources', they said._

Another memory, this time Fū had hit her head on a table while retrieving a pencil. She'd tried to laugh off the pain, despite the fact that she was obviously crying.

_We take babies and shove demons into them. Then we treat them like the monsters they protect us from._

Ideas, memories and guilt were all rushing through her mind now:

Playing alone in the park. Smiling widely, pretending not to hear the whispering. Parents ushering their children away, warning them against her. It was all there.

_Something needs to be done._

No, that thought hadn't come out right. There was a better way to put it.

**I**_ need to do something._

_._

_._

* * *

_._

_._

The first thing Naruto became aware of when he stirred was the sunlight blasting through his closed eyes. He reflexively slammed his arm against his face obscuring it.

"Ughhh… what?"

He tried to think, to remember what'd happened. The last thing he remembered was…

_Oh_

The leader of their village had flipped out and said something that shouldn't be true, COULDN'T be true. After all, how could the fox be inside him if the fourth Hokage had killed it?

_But then…  
_

Of course, at the same time, he knew. Of course he knew. His mind may as well have given off an audible click as it finished assembling the puzzle that was his life. It explained EVERYTHING. Avoided, ignored, thrown out of stores, hated, but usually not attacked. Why Iruka-sensei had treated him like…

_The look. That's what it-… They were never really looking at me. All they saw was The Fox. I'm not really human to them, I'm… __**less. **__Just a reminder of whatever they lost. How the hell am I supposed to deal with that? It's not like when I asked for it when I was __**zero**__._

Naruto's train of thought proceded as he desperately attempted to reconcile with other issues, mainly the Fourth Hokage. His hero, now also his villan. The position he'd idolised, the one he'd thought about trying to attain was now tainted. But was it the man or the mantle? Did the job make the man or did the man make the job? What about Jiji? He had to know too. What should he make of that?

_Ughh too many questions and who do I have to answer me? Nobody. Nobody at-_

"You're awake."

_Oh... Well that could be a start._

Naruto drew his arm from his face, squinting as the sunlight invaded his eyes once propped himself up, his hand feeling blades of grass as he did so.

Naruto turned to the source of the voice to see… not what he'd expected. If he was such a monster he should be getting butch guards, cages, threats, that kind of stuff. Instead, the blonde had been confronted by someone he figured must have been his age, in what looked like the forest the kunoichi had carried him through before he was blindfolded. They had messy green hair, their eyes-

_Woah, cool eyes. Wish mine were orange._

They wore a white sleeveless shirt with what might have been a black vest underneath with slightly longer sleeves. Their shorts seemed like a white variation of the three quarter length ones he had on.

_Right, questions._

"Who're you?"

"Fū", She responded.

"Am I in Taki's forest?"

"Yes"

_What am I doing back here?_

Naruto's mind snapped back to the meeting with Taki's leader.

'_**NARUTO UZUMAKI?! OH, ONLY THE CURRENT HOST FOR THE **__KYŪBI NO YŌKO__**, THE MOST POWERFUL BIJŪ **__IN EXISTENCE! _**AND! well, I'm just gonna go out on a limb here, BUT I THINK KONOHA MIGHT WANT HIM BACK!'**

Naruto had, understandably, phased out a little after that.

_That dude was scared outta his mind. Maybe he's even more scared of Konoha than the fox. Guess they wouldda killed me already if they weren't gonna give me back. But like, why drop me in a forest? That makes NO sense. Like, less sense then all the other stuff even. Maybe I should ask Fū _

"You know why?"

"No" The girl his age answered, seemingly eyeing him with caution.

_Oh man. This just keeps getting worse. Stuff is just making less and less sense. What the hell am I supposed to think about of all of this!_

"What are you doing here- with me I mean?" Naruto asked as Fū's presence quickly rose through the ranks of his 'what the hell is going on?' list. It was a long list.

"I think they want me to make sure you don't die or run away or anything like that" Fū responded, obviously at least nearly, if not, as confused as he was.

"How?" the blonde asked.

The girl shrugged in response. "Don't really care what they want me to do. If you want to run, you can, but you probably wont make it out of the forest. This area's pretty safe, but the wildlife is pretty deadly in this forest."

_She won't stop me? I could go?_

Then the question hit him.

_**Go where?**_

If he ran away from here then where would he go? Konoha would find him eventually, albeit for reasons less than satisfactory to Naruto. So was there really any point in running? After all, where would he run too? Naruto fell back onto his back again, feeling drained.

"Do you know who I am?" He finally asked after a few moments of silence.

"Naruto Uzumaki. That's all they told me", Fū answered. She didn't take her eyes off him, scanning for the slightest threat. Obviously she was less than satisfied with her current situation and lack of knowledge thereof.

That seemed strange to Naruto. "Nothing else?" he asked. Surely they had at least told her about _it_.

_Why would they just stick some girl with me? With Taki's leader freaking out like that… _All the parents who had ushered their children away from him suddenly became very relevant to Naruto. _Why would anyone let a girl my age near me? If I'm meant to be such a baddy then they should have left me on my own. That would have made loads more sense-_

His stomach suddenly protested as he realised he smelled cooked meat. Naruto inclined his head towards what looked like a pile of (over)cooked meat.

"You can have some ", Fū said, seemingly understanding his train of thought. Either that or she'd heard his stomach growl, Naruto wasn't sure.

Finally getting up properly, Naruto trailed over to the meat in a manner that anyone who knew him would regard as lacklustre. He was right; the meat was burned. "Um, I still have questions" he finally sounded.

Fū looked up, raising an eyebrow "I think there's a line or something for that"

"Heh" He responded.

They both smiled, the apparent ridiculousness of their circumstances appearing somehow comedic.

_That's actually kinda funny._

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* * *

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Land of Fire - Konoha - Hokage Tower

Hiruzen looked up from his desk as he heard the door open, well, he looked up from the papers covering it anyway. A small part of him wondered if he'd ever actually get through all of it. Ah, how he missed having the stamina to just create some shadow clones at the drop of his, as (secretly) named by the first Hokage, 'Badass Hat' to help assist him. He still could, however, he could swear that he could feel his chakra coils physically aching after he did so. As the years marched on he'd eventually decided it wasn't worth it.

"You wanted to see me sir?" Asked a certain silver haired jōnin.

"Ah yes", The Hokage responded, donning his grandfatherly smile. "We've just received Taki's response to our message". '_Blasted fools kept us waiting as long as they could as well', _he internally scowled. Even a day longer may have forced his hand. Luckily things had gone as expected. Taki had written back to them, practically falling over themselves in their apologies for their kunoichis' transgressions. Hiruzen cleared his throat as he began the briefing. "I'm sending you alone on to retrieve Naruto Uzumaki."

Kakashi Hatake's eyes widened, partially in surprise that he was the only shinobi being sent into Taki, but mostly in anticipation. Hiruzen wouldn't be too surprised if this was exactly the kind of even that would final push the young man needed for him to actually make contact with the boy once this whole mess was over. "Sir?" The jōnin replied. "May I ask why it is that I am to be sent alone for such an important-"

"-We are making at statement" Hiruzen cut him off. "Due to our spy-master being… unavailable for the time being, I am sending you, one of our best."

"But why simply one of-"

" '-It would only take one of us to end you'. That's the statement Kakashi," Hiruzen finished elaborating. "Be sure to put that message across" The smile was gone now.

Kakashi was no longer looking at the grandfatherly figure that most were used to. This was the leader, the 'Fire Shadow'. The jōnin swallowed, intimidated like only a Kage could. "Understood Hokage-sama"

"Good." Hiruzen handed over an opened message that appeared to have been folded up. "You will be greeted by an envoy at the enclosed location. They don't know who it is I'm sending, or how many so this document will serve as proof of your identification.

"Understood sir" Kakashi sounded off, turning to leave.

Hiruzen called after him, "Oh, and Kakashi?"

"Yes Hokage-sama?"

"Make sure they get the message."

"Of course sir"

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A/N

OK been a while. Not going to lie, hit a massive writers block regarding this story. I still have it and I dont know how long its going to take before i can actually settle into how this effects Naruto and who Fu is . Its going to take time, but it'll be done.

I'm still terrified of writing Fu. I'm completely and utterly terrified that I''ve missed something, or somehow misinterpreted her. Please comment on how she's written if anything. Just so I have something ot go on honestly.

You may have also noticed that I've written slightly better versions of previous chapters. Don't worry, no plot changes.

There are time gaps. I'm streamlining.

To be honest I actually think I'm at my best when I'm writing Nina. Perhaps More should be narrated from her perspective?

First time recommending the music to listen for for a chapter. A good idea or no?

For the record, the 3/4 shorts are the ones that cover 3/4 of the legs, not the ones that are like short shorts. Just to clarify of you haven't seen the history arc.

Reviews:

LuxEterna1 - Ah so true. Thanks, keep reading.

Hektols - Good points all round :)

Legionary Prime - I'm actually planning something just like that.

3ch0 - Noted

LaughingPrincess88 - We'll see won't we? :)

Takei Daloui - I know right? :)

falciatore1669 - Naruto is actually nine, but your point still stands. I especially agree with the last bit.

The Dark Knight67 - Thanks and We'll see.

Guest - Yes she will be

psyoran - Hope I can live up to your expectations.

Grz - Will do

Death2Ignorance - Thanks. Maybe later when I flesh the story out some more.


	5. Chapter 5

Luck and Anarchy Chapter 5

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_"You want a drink?"_

_[smiles]_

_"You need a drink."_

— Special Agent Dana Scully - The X-Files.

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Taki Forest

...

"Gah!"

That was all Naruto could manage to blurt out as he realised what was happening. The world moved in slow motion as all sense of balance had been lost, the blond feeling every excruciating moment of panic as the situation unravelled.

Last night had been… difficult for Naruto. For Fū too if he'd understood her body language correctly, which he was unsure of. He remembered the night before, more specifically his conversation with the green haired girl, which had quickly become stagnated. They'd both established that they were stuck in the forest for reasons that they were quite happy to dance around like their lives depended on it. Naruto had no clue what she was hiding, (as obviously as he was no less) but had decided to let it slide when he'd realised that asking for that kind of information when he hadn't told her about his… condition might be a tad hypocritical. A tiny part of Naruto's mind congratulated him on correctly using the word 'hypocritical', before resuming his recall of the last 18 hours or so before he plummeted to his death. Aside from this, Fū had pretty much established how things were going to work. She had no real reason to do what Taki wanted her to, as they'd apparently abandoned her in the forest (he didn't ask and doubted she would tell if he did), Naruto would be pulling his weight. He was initially fine with this, thinking that he'd been relatively self-sufficient up until this point anyway. That was of course until he'd realised that making it on your own in a relatively hostile urban environment, and making it on your own in a _batshit deadly_ Taki forest environment weren't really all that alike.

He remembered his overconfident, overly quick movements along the treetop. He cringed as he realised, all too late, that his foot was slipping on the moss. He knew the exact moment when his attempt to regain his balance had failed. All he could do was look and think on-

_Fifty feet_.That was his guess at the distance he had before he hit the ground.

Then, while Naruto lost his final remnants of contact with the branch he'd been moving along, he felt something grip his wrist as the rest of his body dangled from-

_Fū_

She'd grabbed a hold of Naruto as he'd fallen. Naruto took the briefest of moments to look down again to see if-

_Yea the fall woulda... yea  
_

"Hey!" Aggravated at his lack of attention towards their current problem, Fū had (rightly) yelled at him. "Don't just hang there! You've gotta try pulling yourself up too!"

Naruto's attention snapped back around from the ground to his green haired savour.

"R-right!" Naruto stammered, beginning to pull himself up as Fū held his weight, probably better than he could have held her's. One of his hands lashed away from the girl's hand to grasp the branch they'd both been standing on, providing additional support, taking some of the weight off of Fū. She used the opportunity to lift him the remaining distance up onto the branch.

_Safe… freaking safe… I… I nearly died-_

Fū practically collapsed up against the trunk of the treat the base of the branch. "That… too close… one second later and…" She looked down, Naruto quickly doing the same.

_Yep. Totally dead. I would have been... if she didn't- Oh! Right!_

"T-thanks, for saving me and stuff" Naruto stuttered, still a little shaken by his only just, escape from…

_Well yea_.

"I was really good at climbing back in Konoha so I thought I would be here too and… I didn't think about the moss… and… thanks. You saved me." He smiled his usual way. He couldn't quite bring himself to be genuinely happy yet, so his usual would have to do.

To his credit, Fū smiled back. Though, Naruto did think it looked a lot like…

_Huh_

Fū's expression darkened. "You're gonna need to get better fast if you want to help".

_If I want to eat._

"I know"

That was the deal. If you wanted to eat, you helped gather the food.

"What did you nearly end up dying for anyway?" Fū asked, arms crossed as she effortlessly stood on the branch without even needing to think about her seemly perfect balance. Naruto might've found it funny if it didn't shine a glaring light on the blatant gaps in their abilities.

"Oh!" Naruto gripped one of the thinner adjacent branches for support as he rummaged through one of his pockets, withdrawing a hand full of berries before pouring them back in. "You said these ones taste really nice, right? There were loads around back over…" Naruto gestured back, vaguely in the direction he'd come from before he'd slipped. "-there, I think. I've gotta couple pockets full. Is that ok? S-so far I mean"

Fū arched an eyebrow, looking at little amused. "Those are fine" She spoke, before finally sighing, "Come on. You can help me set up traps. I think we've got enough berries and fruit."

Naruto brightened up at the idea of helping again. "OK!" He smiled again, for real this time.

Fū smile back.

_Huh. For real this time._

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Inside a certain seal

"ALERT"

Monstrous eyes snapped open, eagerly awaiting the verdict on his pseudo parole, which, if granted, he would abuse to no end.

"Mortal danger averted – Continuing current seal maintenance"

"_**TEASE," **_he growled in a viciously low tone as a sensation of pure fury flooded through him. Then of course, there was the added nuisance of his fellow inmates… could practically _feel _the glee radiating through his environment. They were… amused.

_**Fine… let them have this moment. I shall have my freedom, whether from this host or the next. Then maybe we shall see how amusing they find their situations.**_

The Fox smiled.

Suddenly they didn't find it so funny anymore.

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Shushuya Bar  


"I'm a terrible person aren't I?"

_Probably _

"Of course you aren't Iruka. How could you possibly think that?" Mizuki responded, internally twiddling this thumbs, going through the expected motions. After all, this was to be expected of him as a friend. He would console Iruka; tell him what he wanted to hear, regardless of whether or not it was true. An utterly pointless act in his opinion. But apparently that's what 'friends' do when they're dragged out for drinks in the middle of the night so that they can listen to said friend's guilt trip over giving the Fox the cold shoulder.

Iruka waved off the compliment, as expected. He would need to be told a few more times before allowing himself to believe it. '_Otherwise he might seem big-headed'._ Mizuki internally chuckled at the thought momentarily escaping from the bore that was his current situation. Iruka reached for his drink again. However, he stopped as he lifted it to his lips. "Your drinking too"

_Crap. He usually doesn't notice that I refrain from alcohol. _

Of course, a shinobi actively attempting to avoid drinking among his comrades too many times, especially trusted ones, eventually garnered suspicion, and he'd had enough of that already thank you very much.

'_Tch, I can't back out without arising suspicion now', _Mizuki thought as he grabbed the glass in front of him, downing his drink along with Iruka. This was going to be a long night

_Oh well, I suppose I can get a little tipsy. It's not like Iruka's going to need anything aside from meaningless agreement and empty reassurances to console him._

Iruka gasped after finishing his own drink, proceeding to order another couple of rounds. "How do you do it?_"_

_Wait… what?_

"How do I do what?" Mizuki asked.

"You were the only academy teacher that was actually nice to Naruto. How do you do it?"

Mizuki gaped at the man and his, well, obvious question. He took a sip of his drink, realising that Iruka had ordered something… well… he knew it was stronger than the last round. But how should he answer such a question? "Er, well Iruka , you could say that I kind of sympathise with the boy"

_Oh I am lying my ass off here. Maybe I should've just told him the truth._

Iruka raised an eyebrow, momentarily distracted from his own pity party. "What do you mean?"

_Ughh, now I have to dig up THAT story again. Wonderful. This was a bad idea.  
_

"Iruka, you're practically one of the only shinobi, aside from perhaps the Hokage, who doesn't think that I killed one of our own, then got away with it due to a lack of evidence". Iruka flinched as Mizuki allowed some genuine scorn to seep into that statement as he was drawn back into the whole debacle.

_I'm a chūnin with no cerebral training! Did they really think that I'd somehow tricked the Yamanaka that cleared me?! But no! I had to wait an extra year before I could join the academy staff! _

Mizuki cringed. He hadn't quite realised that his aversion to alcohol had left him more than a bit of a lightweight. He'd certainly not wanted to dredge _those_ memories up. Now he wasn't even sure that he was sober enough to weave them into coherent and believable lie. Deciding that it was a bit late for that, he downed whatever the hell it was that Iruka had ordered. His true reasons for being nice to the demon brat were rather less altruistic.

_Honestly! The Fox brat might be a demon, but, unlike the rest of this backward village, I see that as a reason NOT to piss him off. How people just go around antagonising the host of a DEMI-GOD without being officially awarded the title of 'too stupid to live' is simply beyond me. Hell, he might even be useful at some point._

Mizuki waved his hand to the bartender to indicate another round while Iruka, meanwhile, had seemingly taken his blatant lies to heart and was now regarding at him admirably. "Your right" he finally decided upon, guilt visibly seeped across his face once more. He immediately grabbed the drink that appeared in front of him and began consuming it.

"Still, you went after him, right?"

"Well yea-" Iruka acknowledged. "But-"

"Work with that then" Mizuki concluded. "The kid knows you went after him" The man with the lavender coloured hair sighed. "Look, just use that as ground for maneuvering, then properly make amends with i-t..them." Mizuki coughed into his hand, hoping he could play that little slip up off as an oncoming cold. Looking back up at Iruka, it seemed apparent that there was no need. The man was taking his advice into earnest consideration, having completely missed out on his little mistake.

Finally, "What if he thinks I'm just trying to trick him like Hibachi." Iruka looked down at his drink, running his index finger along the rim. "I could just make things worse."

_Ah, right, the little shit that caused this whole mess in the first place._

"He's irrelevant. From what I hear, he's either being expelled or something similar. That won't go unnoticed." Mizuki put on his winning 'totally your friend' smile. "And, of course, If you need someone to talk you up to the boy we know he likes me."

Iruka seemed to brighten up at the suggestion, "Would you?"

"Of course. What're friends for?"

_Aside from wasting my nights with this crap that is._

Iruka seemed to have taken this as another crowing moment of their friendship, throwing his arm around him with a sincere smile plastered across him. The feeling, much to Mizuki's surprise was… not entirely unpleasant. Of course, before he had any time to ponder what this could've meant, or indeed, how to squash said feeling into oblivion, Iruka's smile had shifted into a full on grin, uncannily like Naruto's. "Another round then?"

Mizuki looked up at the clock to see that it was… _far _too late to get a in good night's sleep anyway, even if he returned home.

_Might as well make a night out of it then._

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Meanwhile – Unknown Bar

Jiraiya's face grew increasingly pail as he read backlogged letter after backlogged letter.

'_In my defence'_ he thought. '_I was tracking some of the most dangerous shinobi on the planet for crying out loud! What could've possibly been so important that it should distract me from that?!'_

"Apparently this", he mumbled. He let out a sigh of palpable relief while finishing up the last letter which had, much to his relief, dropped his summoning urgency back to 'Return, ASAP' from 'WHY ARE YOU STILL READING THIS?! RUN!'

"-nother round sir?"

"-fraid not" Jiraiya replied, waving back to the bartender as he left.

_Damn, I was going to make a night out of it too._

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Land of Fire

'_Hmm, looks like the terrain's starting to change' _Kakashi deliberated as he continued on his journey.

Trees sailed past him in a blur of motion that might have even impressed even his former sensei. He didn't care. Kakashi would break the sound barrier if he had to (not that he knew if he could). He wouldn't allow for another failure. He couldn't. He'd failed too many times already.

_I could've taken the boy in… but I didn't _

_I Could've been there for him even if he wasn't living with me… but I wasn't_

_I could've at least looked out for him outside of ANBU detail… but I didn't._

_Coulda_

_Woulda _

_Shoulda_

_But I didn't…_

He knew why he'd done what he'd done (or hadn't done in this case). Naruto just seemed so much… no, too much like _them_. His attitude and facial structure were, without a doubt, _her's_. Yet, the hair and eyes had given him a resemblance to _him_, which, by all rights should have been noted by somebody by now. Just looking at him had reminded Kakashi of not one, but two of his most treasured friends. God help the kid if he got Kakashi as a teacher, which by some of the Hokage's hints, was becoming more and more likely if he didn't pass a genin team in the next few years. Kakashi would probably ignore or deflect the blonde as much as possible before pawning his tutoring off onto someone else. Anything to avoid the living reminder of who he'd lost. He spent enough time around one memorial stone already.

_That stops now._

He wasn't just going to leave sensei's legacy alone like that anymore. He'd get used to it, power through, he didn't care anymore. He had to do something, anything! Just so long as that, when the time came, he could reunite with them without shame. He wasn't sure what he could do to make up for it yet, but retrieving him from foreign captors would be a good start.

The terrain shifted as he travelled, becoming slightly more tropical.

_Send a message._

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A/N

I need to stop putting in the quotes first. I always end up changing them by the time I'm finished writing.

Was going to write more but as its been a while since the last chapter, I'll save that stuff for next time and let you have this one early.

Sooooo... stuff:

Little bit of Naruto and Fū interacting. That was fun and really hard as I'm still settling into my interpretation of who her character is.

I enjoyed writing Mizuki this chapter. Despite the manner in which he (arguably) falls off a slippery slope by the beginning of the series, I had fun making him out as both a member of the ignorant masses and an 'only sane man' who... you know, actually makes the smart choice when he's dealing with (from his perspective) a demon by not trying to piss it off at every turn, even if he does end up as a manipulative bastard in cannon.

Kakashi got a status update... which was... yea.

When I started out with this fic I thought I'd be making only one real change and following the stations of cannon from there to see where it went. As it turns out? NO. Its rippling.

If anyone's wandering why I'm updating less often then two reasons:

1) I wrote when I felt like it and I feel like it less at the moment

2) Back from uni to a glorious reunion with my PS3. As such, I'm marathoning 'The Last Of Us' and all of the Borderlands 2 DLC (omfg all of the above is amazingly good)


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